It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the State Department today in honor of Our Cities, Our Climate – an initiative between the State Department and Bloomberg Philanthropies.[...]At the center of the State Department’s public diplomacy is the mission to connect the United States with the world to foster creative and powerful networks of citizens around the world to build common understanding.

The closure of the American Center in Moscow is just the latest step taken by the Kremlin to crack down on U.S. public diplomacy initiatives within Russia and ratchet up anti-Western sentiment.[...] As Ambassador Tefft suggests, the move marks the culmination of a decades-long process of undermining U.S. cultural influence in Russia that emerged in the wake of the post-perestroika euphoria and belief in the rosy future of Russian-U.S. relations.

She is only 10, but Dai Jingya has already come face to face with more heads of state than most people will in their lifetimes. She has rubbed shoulders with Chinese President Xi Jinping four times, and greeted the leaders of Singapore, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Denmark. Dai is one of a group of children culled from Beijing schools to welcome the constant stream of foreign dignitaries coming to the capital to pay their respects, alongside People's Liberation Army soldiers and a host of top Chinese officials.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is rolling out a new kind of diplomacy, which includes a netball team, the Cook Islands and $50,000 of taxpayer money. The cash will come from the Public Diplomacy Fund, allowing New Zealand's national development squad to play a series of tests in Rarotonga to mark the 50th anniversary of the Cook Islands' independence. 

...[In] addition to these anti-terrorism measures that are also generally seen in other countries, Morocco started its unique reform in the religious field, namely, the education of Imams. The objective of this reform is to prevent the youth from developing a false “sympathy”  toward extremism; if Imams preach moderate Islam in all mosques in Morocco, then young Moroccans will understand that the “sympathy” directed toward the Islam of extremists is wrong and that moderate Islam is the correct path.

Internationalization of higher education is becoming a new mantra for the Polish government. In June, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education signed an agreement with the UAE to attract more of their students. Poland already has similar agreements with Oman, Malaysia, and China. [...] The point is that there are lots of reasons to internationalize and the rankings are one small part. 

The Embassies Festival, organized by ESCU Association, under the auspices of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, celebrated world cultural diplomacy with the slogan “Open Your Culture.” The Embassy of Morocco in Bucharest took part, highlighting Morocco’s exotic tourist attractions and various aspects of Morocco’s culture and handicrafts.